[Quote No.61813] Need Area: Friends > General "The only proper [rationally, ethically justifiable] functions of a government [which is a group of citizens authorized, if necessary to fulfil the social contract for peaceful, productive coexistence, to deny individuals their birth-right to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (and therefore private property)', through the use of threat and force] are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breaches or fraud by the others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law." - Ayn Rand Philosopher and author. As quoted in her work, 'For the New Intellectual'.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.61936] Need Area: Friends > General "[Free-market capitalism and private property incentivizes people to serve the consumer rather than the politician-feudal 'lords':] Why Politicians Win (and Workers Lose) Under Socialism [Communism, statism, etc., where property is de-privatised]:
Socialism leads to the politicization of society. Hardly anything can be worse for the production of wealth.
Socialism, at least its Marxist version, says its goal is complete equality. The Marxists observe that once you allow private property in the means of production, you allow differences. If I own resource A, then you do not own it and our relationship toward resource A becomes different and unequal. By abolishing private property in the means of production with one stroke, say the Marxists, everyone becomes co-owner of everything. This reflects everyone's equal standing as a human being.
The reality is much different. Declaring everyone a co-owner of everything only nominally solves differences in ownership. It does not solve the real underlying problem: there remain differences in the power to control what is done with resources.
In capitalism, the person who owns a resource can also control what is done with it. In a socialized economy, this isn't true because there is no longer any owner. Nonetheless the problem of control remains. Who is going to decide what is to be done with what? Under socialism, there is only one way: people settle their disagreements over the control of property by superimposing one will upon another. As long as there are differences, people will settle them through political means.
If people want to improve their income under socialism they have to move toward a more highly valued position in the hierarchy of caretakers. That takes political talent.
Under such a system, people will have to spend less time and effort developing their productive skills and more time and effort improving their political talents.
As people shift out of their roles as producers and users of resources, we find that their personalities change. They no longer cultivate the ability to anticipate situations of scarcity to take up productive opportunities, to be aware of technological possibilities, to anticipate changes in consumer demand, and to develop strategies of marketing. They no longer have to be able to initiate, to work, and to respond to the needs of others.
Instead, people develop the ability to assemble public support for their own position and opinion through means of persuasion, demagoguery, and intrigue, through promises, bribes, and threats. Different people rise to the top under socialism than under capitalism. The higher on the socialist hierarchy you look, the more you will find people who are too incompetent to do the job they are supposed to do. It is no hindrance in a caretaker politician's career to be dumb, indolent, inefficient, and uncaring. He only needs superior political skills. This too contributes to the impoverishment of society.
The United States is not fully socialized, but already we see the disastrous effects of a politicized society as our own politicians continue to encroach on the rights of private property owners. All the impoverishing effects of socialism are with us in the U.S.: reduced levels of investment and saving, the misallocation of resources, the over-utilization and vandalization of factors of production, and the inferior quality of products and services. And these are only tastes of life under total socialism." - Hans-Hermann HoppeExcerpted from 'Why Socialism Must Fail', published in 'The Free Market Reader'. [Refer https://mises.org/blog/why-politicians-win-and-workers-lose-under-socialism ]Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.62095] Need Area: Friends > General "[Authoritarianism, paternalism, statism, socialism, communism, fascism, etc:] Is it not ironical that in a planned society of controlled workers given compulsory assignments, where religious expression is suppressed, the press controlled, and all media of communication censored, where a puppet government is encouraged but denied any real authority, where great attention is given to efficiency and character reports, and attendance at cultural assemblies is mandatory, where it is avowed that all will be administered to each according to his needs and performance required from each according to his abilities, and where those who flee are tracked down, returned, and punished for trying to escape - in short in the milieu of the typical large American secondary school - we attempt to teach 'the democratic system'?" - Royce Van NormanSource: 'School Administration: Thoughts on Organization and Purpose,' Phi Delta Kappan 47(1966):315-16.
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[Quote No.62202] Need Area: Friends > General "[Government and the equal individual human birth-rights to freedom from force or fraud:] The progress from an absolute to limited monarch, from a limited monarch to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. ...Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State, until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly." - Henry David Thoreau'Civil Disobedience', 1849.Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.62224] Need Area: Friends > General "[Conflict, war, propaganda and self-interest:] States have always thrived on the fear of the taxpayers, and states have always justified their existence in part on the idea that without the state, we'd all be overrun by barbarians, or murdered by our neighbors. Charles Tilly, a historian of the state, frequently noted that the modern state as we know it, was born out of war, and was created to wage war. War and the state are inseparable.
Moreover, support for the state is so central to maintaining continued funding and deference to the state's monopoly power, that Randolph Bourne famously went so far as to say that 'war is the health of the state.'
By extension, agents of the state - whether elected officials or bureaucrats - fancy themselves as guardians of prosperity and civilization. Without them, they apparently believe, life would be barely worth living.
Thus, one should hardly be surprised when government bureaucrats spread fear as a means of self-promotion." - Ryan McMakenQuote from the article entitled, 'Federal Bureaucrat to the Public: Be Afraid!', published 26th May, 2017. [https://mises.org/blog/federal-bureaucrat-public-be-afraid ]Author's Info on Wikipedia - Author on ebay - Author on Amazon - More Quotes by this AuthorStart Searching Amazon for GiftsSend as Free eCard with optional Google Image

[Quote No.62433] Need Area: Friends > General "The creation of the world -- said Plato -- is the victory of persuasion over force... Civilization is the maintenance of social order, by its own inherent persuasiveness as embodying the nobler alternative. The recourse to force, however unavoidable, is a disclosure of the failure of civilization, either in the general society or in a remnant of individuals... Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force." - Alfred North Whitehead(1861-1947), philosopher and mathematician. Source: in 'Adventures of Ideas'.
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